I apologize for any doubts I expressed about Hinamatsuri.  This show is effing brilliant, pretty much.  And it manages to succeed on more levels than I ever would have expected.  It is primarily a comedy, yes – and it works beautifully as one – but it’s capable of so much more than that.  A diversity of comic styles built around the diversity of the cast – that’s the key to really outstanding anime humor,  But is also manages to be serious when it wants to be, without losing the essential nature of what sort of series it is.  That’s impressive by any measure.

This episode was a striking display of the strengths Hinamatsuri brings to the table.  It starts out with a major twist – someone has come to collect Hina and take her home.  That someone is Ikaruga Kei, some sort of middle manager from whatever organization it is that creates girls like Hina (or at least isolates and procures them).  A few tantalizing hints are dropped this week – Hina and those like her are called “gifteds”, and they were a collar that’s supposed to control them (with the threat that their heads will be ripped off if they disobey).  That latter part is a fairly standard premise (Gokukoku no Brynhildr employed it pretty much to the letter).  But Hina has managed to rip her collar off during some sort of rampage – though she’s too clueless to have realized it.

Kei ends up running into Anzu at the restaurant – much to Anzu’s surprise, it’s a coincidence – and after summarily dissing Anzu’s importance, they set off to observe Hina.  And in fact, Hina is showing signs of growth – she passes Kei’s hilariously basic “novice” checklist with flying colors.  Turns out that if Hina passes 90% of the questions, Kei is to take her back – something Kei is entirely unenthusiastic about, as she’s terrified of Hina’s powers and has no way to combat them if the girl resists.  Kei’s master plan to expose Hina’s true nature – an abandoned dog scam – winds up with Hina stealing Hitomi’s umbrella (she gets a pass on that based on moral relativism I guess) and Kei having to take in the dog.

The second chapter is a pure comic interlude, and an absolutely cracking one.  It features a new entrant, Mami, one of Hina’s classmates and a straight-up one-year-early chuunibyou (chuuichibyou?).  She’s an esper otaku and spots Hina using her powers for good (throwing away the trash).  There’s nothing deep or profound about this segment, but it’s stupidly funny – Mami is an absolute buffoon, and Hinamatsuri is unsparing in its comic treatment of such characters.  One would have thought calling the teacher “mama” would be the ultimate humiliation for a middle schooler, but Mami manages to top that with her attempted display of “her” powers – as “taught” by her master, Hina (who sleeps through the whole debacle).  The real victim here is Mami’s poor mother – and I love the closing “for two days”…

Finally, we have the effective conclusion of the two-part mini-ep that started the episode.  Keri finally decides to confront Hina, who’s celebrating the removal of her cast with a parfait (at “JoJothan’s”).  Hina puts up surprisingly little resistance – surprising, that is, until she reveals that she still believes she’s wearing the control collar.  Kei tells her she has two days to wrap up her affairs (unable to tell Nitta directly, she attempts to subliminally do so through sweatshirt messaging) – the amount of time she thinks it will take to find someone to take the puppy.

The question of an emotional parting between Hina and Nitta is a challenging one, given the overall tone of Hinamatsuri.  Such things certainly have their place in this series – but that’s with Anzu and her arc.  The roles are well-established by now, and that’s not really Hina’s storyline. Still, she has grown and so has Nitta, and we need something of consequence to give this segment a sense of closure. I think the writing gets the balance just right here – we definitely see that Hina has a true sense of appreciation towards Nitta (as well she should) and that he’s grown at least a sort of emotional attachment to her.

The denouement here is classic Hinamatsuri – a couple of good gags, and a pinprick to take all the air out of the big moment.  Turns out Hina can’t go back because she doesn’t have the “orb” she arrived in (“gifteds” can get lost in transit without it).  Why?  “Nitta got mad at it and threw it away”, to which Kei has the only logical response: “How often in life do you get mad at balls?”.  Finally there’s the moment when Hina returns home, expecting Nitta to shed tears of joy to see her.  I was half-expecting her to walk in on something else (I’m kind of glad she didn’t) but what we got was hilarious – my favorite being the “Vase Collection” catalog on the table…